>> bill wolff, you know a time tease eer. i got to go. you got show to work on. thanks for joining us. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. have a great fourth of july weekend. "the last word with lawrence adonal" starts right now. i'm chris hayes in for lawrence o'donnell. a time when pretending a tax cut obsession would help the middle class. now baldly defending the dignity of our long-sufferering private jet owning overlords. only losers fly commercial. the state government is having a happy holiday in minnesota. no matter where, no matter what. republicans refuse to raise revenue to pay the bill. >> the state's second shutdown in six years. >> democrats demanding that we raise taxes. >> some 20,000 state employee jobs are now in limbo. >> it's going to affect our

bottom line. our campground is now closed. >> from minnesota to washington, republicans will do anything to protect the wealthy. corporate jets, aircraft industries, pushing back after harsh words from the president on wednesday. >> corporate jet owner that has done so well. >> you don't give us what we want, we won't raise the ceiling. >> nobody's bumping. >> private jets, that that somehow is going to make a difference, it's disappointing. class warfare. >> and congress 1234 going to approve hundreds ever billions in tax dollars. >> on the campaign trail, mitt romney rewrites mitt romney i didn't say the thing was worse. >> he made it worse. >> he didn't create the recession, but he made it worse. >> but he made it worse. >> i didn't say he made it worse. >> when did rewriting become so funny? >> michele bachmann. >> not politically correct? >> remind us as we stand here,

the pilgrims who on this very spot but in massachusetts filed their papers to form plymouth pac. good evening from washington. it's unbelievable but it's come to this -- republicans in congress may actually push the united states economy over a cliff to protect corporate jets tax breaks. members of military may not get paid so we can continue to fund corporate jet tax break. the united states could lose its aaa credit rating and inter billions in defense of, yes, corporate jet tax breaks. keep in mind we're not even arguing right now about new taxes, because, of course, republicans will not stand for those. no ifs, ands or buts. no. we're talking about reducing the subsidy the government gives out to people that own corporate jets. that's the terrain upon which the budget battle is now being waged. does anyone believe when the dow is 12,500 when 88% of income

gains in the recovery has gone to corporate profits and only 1% to wages and salary, but there is a class war waged against america's corporate jet owners. here's the headline from today's "wall street journal." president gets flak for jet tax idea. business leaders criticized the president saying such a move could jeopardize aircraft sectors still fragile recovery. the mini backlash from the aviation industry showed how discussion of even small largely symbolic tax increases can provoke ungs-the-among those directly affected. of course, the entire u.s. economy is in a still fragile recovery. by that logic we shouldn't be undertaking any deficit reduction in the near-term. then washington fiscal policy is a corporate jet owner's

ungs-the-worse? marco rubio attacked president obama on the senate floor yesterday for not appropriately empathizing with the corporate jet owning class. >> the idea that if we raised taxes it's a president said on millionaires and billionaires, raise taxes on oil companies, raise taxes on owners of private jets that that somehow is going to make a difference in america's debt in terms of having a real impact is not only misleading it's disappointing. class warfare and the kind of language you would expect from a leader of a third world country, not the president of the united states. >> and any concern of national review, rubio continued his assault on the president accusing him of using the rhetoric of a "left wing strong man." president obama is a left wing strong man for targeting a corporate jet tax subsidy, and alan greenspan must be a trufkite for saying the u.s. must return to clinton era tax rates. allowing the u.s. to default on

its debt unless there's a deal with absolutely no revenue component is so insane, so totally ludicrous that a series of republicans are now publicly calling out their party in an effort to sound ate lar. the latest republican to issue a cry for help is former senator pete domenici quoted in bloomberg saying, the debt's coming due and the republicans say it isn't coming down. what do we get? bring god down? the official drop dead rate is august 2nd but an agreement needs to be reached before then to write, score and vote on legislation in congress. if 3ruben party elders cannot get through to the caucus what can president obama possibly say to convince them? joining me now, jared bernstein, former chief economist to vice president biden, senior fellow at budget and policy and msnbc contributor sally cohen, found e of the movement vision lab. welcome to you both.

>> thank you. >> thank you. >> okay. jared, does it scare you at all? i mean, there's a certain way of understanding this, which is this is political theater. they always do this and lawrence has been on this show and played clips from the left wing, this has been going on forever. there's one way of viewing political theater and others that there's actually something new here. that there's a difference in kind in the kind of resistance we're seeing the republicans, that's actually quite scary. which of those two scenarios do you think it is? >> i think it's both. i think it's very scary political theater. the thing about it is, when you call it political theater, it sounds costless. everyone's in their corner trying to get the leverage they think they need to get the best deal. it is not costless by any stretch of the imagination, because every time the bond market begins to get worried and yields, interest rates go up, that means the budget deficit rises. that means it costs that much more to service the debt. if interest rates go up half a

percent, that's $50 billion more on debt service. so it's -- it's not hard to convince yourselves that republicans are, you know, deeply hypocritical on debt and deficit. one thing i always like to remember, these are the folks that voted for the paul ryan budget, which unquestionably implies a $6 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. so it's really hard to get your head around this. i don't think the theater is costless at this point, though. >> sally, i wanted to talk to you a little bit about where the center of this debate is, because you and i have had conversations about this before. we're talking about 17% of the whole being closeed by increased revenue. no rate hike. no claw backs on the -- on the giveaway to the rich in the lame duck session. 83% on the spending side. it seems we're already so backed into a corner defending a very small portion of the turf. >> yeah. and i have to say, i'm at least glad to see president obama come out and swing a little harder.

look, any american, any working class american who's worked harder and harder for the last 10 and 20 years and seen their paycheck not grow while seeing, as you've noted, the share of the economy, the share ever the wealth for the richest 1% of 1% grow out of control, understand something has to be done. the majority, the vast majority of country wants to see, not only some of the -- tax increases, they support it. why won't the democrats come out and really fight on this issue? >> let me say something about that, chris. here's what i have in my mind. imagine somebody drops in to this country from outer space right now and looked at the nature of this debate. they would very quickly conclude that the problem facing the american economy is that rich people don't have enough money and middle class people are doing far too well. there is no other way to interpret that policy. they also probably figure out that the policy road map that the republicans are pushing is the best policy for growth and

prosperityy. completely, of course, disproved by the biggest recession since the great depression. so topsy-turvy upside down and to tell you 9 truth, rive been in this town a couple of decades, not in this town but d.c. and i really haven't seen anything like it. to the extend of hypocrisy is a bit frightening. >> jared, just on this point, were you in the white house when the tax cut deal was put through in the lame duck session that preserved the bush tax cuts for the upper bracket. >> right. >> if the republican party is resolutely and unanimously opposed under any circumstances to raising taxes, what is the next move? how is that log jam broken in absence of some crazy crisis that has them running back -- i honestly can't see the path forward. >> yeah. well, the path forward is an ugly one, because the path forward has to be calling, if it's not a bluff, it has to be calling their position. there cannot be a deal without

revenues in the deal. if you try to squeeze out a path of budget sustainability or anything like that without revenue, will you have to cut government to the point where it would be unrecognizable, and i'm talking about military, social security, you know, health security, retirement security. education, infrastructure. protection for low-income people. the reason why revenues have to be part of the deal, it's not because we want things to be balanced or things should be even or we want this and they want that, because outwardly, the pressure on spending is so deep that you will cut the floor out from under this economy, and that is economically suicidal. >> sally, do you -- what do you think about this idea of calling the bluff? because there's part of me that feels like, okay, fip. they should say, you know, you want to mess around with the debt ceiling, make our day. at the end of the day, goldman sachs holds treasuries and the chamber of commerce will be none too pleased when the dwulee fau

start because what happens in a double dip recession is working people get screwed. >> right. look, i think we should announce the campaign instead of bleeding the middle class with more cuts, have every working person out there donate spinal fluid to the democrats so they can help stiffen their spine. because you know, honestly, they shouldn't give in on this one. this is insane. if we don't stand for this what do we stand for? instead of a little pinprick in the pockets of the rich -- come on. we're going to -- back into the middle class. >> jared -- >> one second. >> sure. >> i just want to push back on that, because i feel the same way, but what does spinal fluid look like, right? in terps of what that actually looks like what it means is calling the bluff. i mean, what it means is, is the president taking the microphone and saying, i will not pass any debt ceiling deal that doesn't have tax revenue. >> right. >> he has to make an ultimatum of an, an equal ultimatum to the

one on the other side about taxes. >> unfortunately, they're backing the president into a typical situation, but frankly the republicans here, and not all republicans but the extreme right of the republican party are acting like ideological parrots, literally willing to blow up the economy and the future of our nation to score a few political points. this is a point the president has to say, look, we don't negotiate with ideological parrots. we're going to stake a claim, stand for working people and trust that if he does the principled and economically sound thing, the public will be with him and know where the real blame lies. >> jared? >> i don't -- that may be -- i actually think that's a position he may need to think at the end. i wouldn't go there yet. let me say this about we mentioned wall street and you mentioned the business community. the kmam ber of commerce. i'd like to know where they are in this debate. i understand there a wing of the conservative party that is off the cliff on this stuff, but i

can't believe that businesses want to be looking at a dwefaul, groups that represent small business, the chamber, want to see this fragile recovery rock to its core. so i would like -- where are these folks putting pressure on congress to take the right vote on this? you know, president obama said it i thought very correctly the other day. i'm doing my best to lead this when we haven't had a system that requires other people to come to the table and negotiate an for them to walk away, i'd like to see some pressure from the other side on this, too. >> jared bernstein, sally cohen, thank you so much both of you for your time. have a grade holiday weekend. >> thank you, you, too. only 49 states are up and running toerntd. minnesota's government shut down. what kwo it mean for a certain former governor who is also running for president? later, an in-depth look at the most underreported story of the week. why with its 5-4 decision the supreme court rules once again

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[ gnome ] it's go time.

the kwaept went dark today in minnesota and tens of thousands of state employees are out of work. did this whole mess start with former governor turned presidential candidate tim pawlenty? fox news has become america's number one source for misinformation and republican propaganda. new evidence emerged in the dirty tricks world of the nixon white house. we'll examine the original blueminute for his "fair

[ chanting ] at the scene in minnesota which is in a state of economic chaos tonight, and all of us would do well to pay close attention, because what's happening there is a glimpse into our future conservatives continue their unrelenting brinksmanship. governmenting shut down closing everything from campgrounds to the dmv and causing a layoff of 22,000 state workers. it gets much, much worse and i'll show new a moment. first, the back story. former governor and current republican presidential candidate tim pawlenty left a charred and smoking fiscal ruin for his successor. pawlenty claims credit for balancing budget on his watch but did so by using the dreaded stimulus money and one-time fixes including putting off some of the state's obligations and

yet even raised taxes or fees as he calls them on cigarettes. his successor was left with a $5 billion deficit to tackle. he was willing to negotiate. he offered a mix of spendi cuts and tax increases on those making $180,000 a year. republicans said no. he sacrificed more, offering to only raise taxes on those making more than $1 million a year. you know how many millionaires there are in minnesota? 7,700 out of a population of 5 million. that's less than 1% of the state. republicans again said no. they then counteroffered. they would come up with a list of unspecified revenue increases, but only if dayton was willing to sign on to a list of provisions obviously designed to destroy the state's democratic party. like placing restrictions on abortion and requiring photo i.d. for rotors. in other words, we'll bargain if

you concede to our list of ar gugably untenable and preposterous demands. it's not all that different from places like wisconsin and new jersey where republicans have taken the position that the entirety of budget shortfalls must be dealt with by cuts that fall hardest on working people and the poor and protecting to the last dime the sarchtty of millionaires bank accounts. pawlenty finally recalled, and i'm not exaggerating, the state government shutdown that happened on his watch in 2005. >> and we have some startling news -- >> to continue for a while and the people of minnesota would have seen the issues play out a little longer. >> we had a little longer. here are some of the groups who would rather not play it out a little longer. food banks. the blind. those with mental health needs, and battered women. >> and we have startling news from the coalition for battered

women. the shutdown they say caused three emergency shelters to close overnight. >> as of last night, there are no available shelters in the metropolitan area. >> joining me now, steve, political calm lift for salon.com. >> happy to be here. >> and video of the governor explaining the impasse from earlier today. >> we made a lot of progress in the last couple of days because there was a real deadline, but this one basic difference remains. they don't want to raise revenues on anybody and i believe the wealthiest minnesotans can afford to pay more in 257x taxes. >> seems to me like a microcosm of everythingoing on across the country and in washington. >> it is the fundamental divide twine the two political philosophy, the two parties in this country today and the powers, dynamics are similar in minnesota to what they are in washington. you have the democratic executive and the republicans controlling the legislative branch and the absolute bottom line, position of the

republicans i wouldn't call it a bargaining or negotiating position because they aren't trying to barge be and negotiate off it. the but the absolute bottom line is you can't raise taxes on anybody, any amount for any reason. what strikes me as interesting about this i think dayton is somewhat dayton is confident here. some signs of republicans in the minnesota legislature that they were willing to, maybe a way to come up with a bridge to keep this going a few more weeks and negotiate a little longer. they seem to be nervous about the prospect of the shutdown. dayton's response was pretty confident. it was know. it suggested to me what he sees here, there is no negotiating a solution right now with the republicans. 9 only way to get the republicans potentially off this position is shut down the government. people see what that means and see and understand what that means republicans are protecting. that's going to be interesting to watch in the days and weeks ahead. >> interesting to me also as you noted, a fundamental divide, but an asymmetry, right? because there's a u namty on the

republican side there can be no tax increases. none on the democratic side there can be no spending cuts, right? it's not what comes out of those two positions is a middle pact. in fact dayton says, one quarter taxes. a compromise position they walk away from. you wonder what is the possible path out of that if that is the dynamic set up? >> right. i'm headed into really call a negotiating position on the republican side. they're dating an unmovable position. that's why i'm interested to see what will happen. no just what it means for minnesota but what it could mean nationally. dayton's position seems to be the only way to get republicans to budge on this, a revolt in minnesota. shut down the government as dayton did in the clip and been cog for days and weeks if he makes the case, listen, all they need to do is budge on taxes and

we can reopen the government and restart these services, and taxes only on a very, very small portion of the, you know, of the population. if he mikes that case and that case resonates and these republicans start feeling heat, i think he calculates that's the only way to gelt them to move. i see that a lesson nationally if that works's if he takes that course and if that works, that's lesson for what might work nationally for obama and the log jam in congress. >> the minnesota model. thanks, steve. have a great weekend. gay marriage passes in new york. michele bachmann's latest history fail, and perfect material for the likes of jon stewart and conan o'brien. the "last word" tonight.

still aheadinthis hour, the supreme dort's newest justice elena haggan issued a blist blistering -- the high court ruled against free speech. coming up, i'll tell you why she's right. we'll examine the nixon mellow entitled "a plan for putting the gop on tv news." ahead on the "last word." -having her is amazing. -we made a miracle.

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tonight the spotlight. the single most undercovered story of the week. you might call it citizens

united the squeequel, putting campaign finance regulations the court's latest ruling on campaign finance represents a ghastly attempt it kill off any future possibilities of reform. on monday the supreme court stuck drown a provision in arizona clean election act that provided additional funds to candidates who chose to accept public financing instead of private financing. here's how that law worked. if you run for office in arizona you can choose to be a publicly or privately funded candidate. about two-thirds of candidates in arizona opt for public financing. those candidates had access to an initial lump sum's public money to fund their campaign, but if their privately afunded poent or ally spend more money on their campaign than the publicly funded candidate received in their initial state grant, the state gives the public candidate additional, nearly matching, funds. to put it in terms of sean

connery in "the untouchables" if you're the publicly fngsed candidate and you bring a knife and your opponent brings a gun, the state gives you a gun as well. the publicly funded candidate can't spend more than three times their initial grant, but the laws intend and defect was to at least partially level the playing field and create for candidates to seek public financing without imposing or mandating any restrictions on speech. whereas other campaign finance laws have thought to limit expenditures the genius of the arizona law, counter expenditures with more. this was not good enough for the supreme court which ruled in a 5-4 decision those government matching funds are unconstitutionally impinging on the, get this, free speech rights of those who donate to privately funded candidates. a majority was identical to the majority in the shameful citizens united decision which

more or less banned congress from placing limits on what private kopgss can spend. the same majority is back saying even if you don't impose limits but subsidize candidates so as to level of playing field you are violating the constitution. chief just when is roberts wrote in the court's opinion, we hold that arizona's matching funds substantially burdens protected political speech without serving a compelling state interest and, therefore, violates the first amendment. obama appointee elena kagan wrote a dissenting opinion arguing the arizona law if anything promotes free speech enticing more candidates to ent are the race and kips money interests out of the election. she added, they're making a novel argument that arizona violated their first amendment rights by disbursing funds to other speakers even though they could have received but chose to spurn the same financial assistance. some people might call that

chutzpah. joining me now, senior editor and supreme court correspondent, thank you for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> so what do you make of this decision? at one level it's not surprising. i think this is what we thought was coming from arguments and at another level, it seemed out there to me and i'm not lawyer. tell me if i'm wrong. >> no. i think you're right, chris. i think it builds on the crazy metaphor we heard in citizen's united that money equals speech and corporations equal people and now it doubles down and said, oh, and by the way, non-speech equals speech and more speech equals less speech. so if you've got citizens united turned the world on its head, this has turned the world on its head yet again. >> ah. getting into this sort of question of whether this is restricting speech, is there any precedent for this kind of argument to say, look, if you

subsidize another candidate, somehow that affects my first amendment right. it just seemed, where was -- i read both opinions. what exactly was the legal practice that they were building on in this case to make that argument on the majority's side? >> well, this is very much building on, and chief justice roberts builds on, case law that comes up when the court strike down the millionaires amendment in the davis case, and -- >> explain that to us. >> really compounding -- well, that was just the same sort of thing that said that -- tried to attempt to limit expenditures by people who were using their own money. the court struck it down in davis a few years ago, using a lot of the same rationales and in fact i think folks knew that davis was kind ever the wormhole into this world. what's really, really important in this case, chris is that this sedate ballot initiative. the folks in arizona in 1998 passed this because they say

that corruption is so rampant, this is following a huge scandal. what's known in the court papers here as the worst public corruption scandal in arizona state history. >> wow. >> so the citizens of arizona come forward and say you know what? we need to clean this up. they pass this by ballot initiative. so the court is not just saying, we're going to tinker yet again with campaign finance laws. what they're doing is striking down the will of the people in arizona who say, we want to get big money out of our elections. it's corrupting the system. i should say one other thing. in that as excam scandal, almos 10% were caught with their hand in the till, legislators, taking bribes or accepting campaign funds to trade votes on a gaming bill. people were literally, legislators, were coming to meetings with empty duffel bags they expected to leave having literally filled with cash. that's what the people are

arizona were reacting to. that's what the court disrespected. wlnchts you say literally filled with cash, you mean, of course, literally filled with speech under the -- >> it's really amazing. >> let me ask you this. the really scary thing, i think, about this is, you talked about the last decision being a wormhole and into this one. what is thas wormhole into? there is legislation in both the senate and house that would create something like the arizona and maine clean elections model for public federal elections, congressional elections. a tremendous amount of lit dh r lirature suggesting this might break up the dysfunction system we have now. is the court saying we can't do that either? if they are, that seems crazy to me. what are we going to do? >> i think we need to be clear on what this case doesn't do. this case doesn't gut public financing altogether. in fact, chief justice roberts is careful to say,s that not our

business. we're not touching the issue of public financing. what it is gutting in this case is the trigger system you described. right? where once you spend your money and they spend their money and they spend more, the system triggers another grant of public funds to you. that's what the -- technically, the court does away with, but i think you're quite right. it looks like this is a short hop between this and doing away not just with public financing rules around the country, but also, and i think elena kagan makes this point so forcefully in his dissent, chris. she said says every argument that applies here to this trigger system also aplplies to disclosure rules. if my candidate is being chilled because i don't want the other guy to speak, how much more chipped is my candidate chilled by disclosure rules? we're looking at a wormhole into disclosure, too.

>> dahlia, the wormhole correspondent, thanks for joining me. appreciate it. >> have a good weekend. still ahead in this hour, the birth of fox news. a 1970 memo from the nixon white house shows then presidential aide roger ailes hatching the idea for a conservative leading network. that's coming up. last week, the new york state house passed the marriage equality bill giving one of its constituents, jon stewart, plen plenty material for his show this week. the late-night material, coming up.

fox news hit cable in 1996. roger ailes dreamed up the idea of gop tv when he worked for president nixon. it had nothing do with being fair or valid. and later, a look at late-night laughs this week. its gentle glycolic formula resurfaces at night for the smooth skin of a light chemical peel. sleep tight. regenerist, from olay.

sounds like a conspiracy here to toy say that fox news was dreamed up inside the nixon white house as a way to, "provide pro administration hard news to the major cities of the united states ". it is not. apparently the 15-page blueprint titled "a a plan for putting the gop on tv news" sitting on the shelves of the richard nixon presidential library in yorba linda, california, all these years. giving great credit, the bright idea to call them up and publish the memo yesterday. that memo along with other recently retrieved documents reveal in the summer of 1970

nixon aides wanted to circumvent the network news with their own version of the truth, proposed sending packaged edited news stories and interviews directly to local television stations, and they explained, "today television news is watched more often than people read newspapers, than people listen to the radio, than people read or gather any other form of communication. the reason, people are lazy. we television you just sit, watch listen. the thinking is done for you." we don't mean you, of course. then nixon aide roger ailes handwrote notes in the margins ever the memo saying, basically an excellent idea. needs refinement and good organization. the idea providing fake news to local news station eager for free content was later actually realized in the george bush white house as andrea mitchell reported in 2005. >> on issues from medicare to farm prices hundreds of local stations are running stories

extolling bush administration policies making tens of millions of people. >> bob has that story. >> president bush's choice to be the next agriculture secretary. >> reporter: all of these reports were written and distributed by the administration answer its p. rrnlg r. firms, not journalists. >> thought it would be more powerful to use this own network. after fired by the white house, got a new job pbn, bank rolled by a beer magnet joseph coors, get them hooked on news clips the station could use without credit and the gradually, subtly, slowly, inject their philosophy in the news. its motto -- ail and balance. joining me now is rick pearlstein, historian and author

of "nixonland" something you should read. we are not going to respond to memos allegedly writing more than 40 years ago, however, if mr. ailes had the idea for fox news nearly half a century ago he would have beaten cnbc and msnbc sooner from the trash talk. what surprised you about the newly released documents? >> nothing much, chris, i have to say. this document i think, written by chuck colson, we're talking about roger ailes. might as well talk 5g about colson. a prominent figure in the religious right now. this sort of thinking about how to manipulate and manage the public has been going on on kind of the poluto crecratic, makings

and distributing them to nome newspapers but churches and schools. i mean, it's really astonishing that a movement that's supposedly based for the free market simply understands they can't possibly compete in the market for ideas and have to fix it. >> i first came across the story at how roger ailes and richard nixon met in your book, in "nixonland." a great story. how did they first encounter each other? >> richard nixon was, of course, sitting in the makeup chair of that distinguished news program "the mike douglas show "and roger ailes, was a whiz kid producer, 26 years old. richard nixon nervously make as joke how ridiculous it is, the things you have to do to run for president these days. you have 0 to show up in this lady's day time tv shows. he looked nixon in the eye, this 26-year-old, the vice president of the united states, and he said, if you think that tv is ridiculous you're never going to

become president. and nixon said, this is my guy. soon he was working for richard nixon. lo and behold, with a year, introduced one of his fabulous innovations in the fabulous presentation of news, the fake town hall meeting, which was something he introduced for the 196 campaign. they'd get 100 nixon loyalists, set them up as an audience. have richard nixon ask prepared canned questions and cut them into 30-second commercials while these wildly applauding supposedly ordinary citizens off the street acted at props for the presidential campaign. >> a great memo in the document, about a tv, about a christmas lighting in which nixon has a little boy do the lighting but the memo, 9 attention to detail of the propaganda, make sure both nixon and the little boy flip the switch, that the headlines don't read, this little boy's name -- >> an 8-year-old upstaging richard nixon. now, the thing that really comes

out of this, it's funny. we can laugh, but all of these memos, even the christmas memo, also the 1970 let's form a fake news distribution outfit memo, show how incredibly sophisticated roger ailes was about the medium of television. one of my favorite parts of the memo was when the colson, wrote in the memo, you know, this is really going to work, because tv newscasters and producers are so desperate to get raises from bosses they'll want to impress them by having their local senator on for an interview. bamboozling their bosses making them think they got an exclusive interview from washington. he got under the skin and the mind-set's these low-level kind of tv production workers, these low-level tv air talent and the understood how to manipulate they're minds and manipulating is what roger ailes is all about and what he does so well, and in fact in 1972 he told the "the

washington post" he had this great idea to produce news releases and make them look like real news clips, and lo and behold, he did it, and no one imagined then how big it would become. it turns into fox news, which is literally the tail that wags the dog in setting the national agenda on so many of these issues. >> i feel going back to this memo that we are sort of postpolitics era in which we live is roger ailes work. >> yeah. my favorite line also, is, he says, this will avoid the censorship, the priorities and prejudices of network news selector, and disseminator es. in other words, let's process. the people, like walter cronkite, people like david brinkley are the biased and prejudiced people. the nixon white house deciding which republican senators are going to be interviewed. how the interviews would be edited and who's going to see them. >> rick pearlstein, author of "nixonland" thank you. have a great weekend. >> thanks, chris.

take care. coming up, fox fan favorite michele bachmann made her presidential run official when she was whacked into the race like only late-night can. friday funnies are next. are politics at its worst. the republicans have opposed economic reforms at every turn. and now they have a plan that would essentially end medicare for future retirees... slash education... while giving huge tax breaks to big oil and the wealthy. we can't rebuild america if they tear down the middle class. priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. can become romantic just like that. a spark might come from -- a touch, a glance -- it can come along anywhere, anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use.

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debt talks. former illinois governor convicted on 17 criminal counts. michele bachmann's gaffe and new york passing the marriage equality bill. all top head lyse and provided fodder for late-night comedians. here's this week's "friday funnies." >> gay rights marriage passed and know what that means. >> it will bring more than $1 4 million to the state in the next

three years. >> ooh. and ladies and gentlemen, i also am cashing in. perfect time to roll out my new jon stewart brand speedos. >> if more states legalize gay marriage, god will destroy america. yeah, and then god will rebuild america into the greatest dance club the world has ever known. >> finally, new york state's gay and lesbian community are free from the burden that was having to set foot in connecticut in order to get married. oh. really? the nuptials are in stanford. hmm. >> anybody here for the gay pride parade yesterday? i went dressed as michele bachmann. >> michele bachmann said her home town of waterloo, iowa is the birthplace of john wayne when actually it's the birthplace of john wayne gacy. >> i think there is something to that.

like gacy, people might think you're a clown if they dig a little deeper, they'll find that you are deadly serious. when you stumble on facts, don't get back into a corner. you double down. you say not only do you have the spirit of john wayne gacy, you've got the eyes of a young charles manson. >> john quincy adams most center was a part revolutionary war era. he was a young boy, but he was actively involved. >> but he wasn't a founding father. i mean, he was 9 at the time. if he'd signed the declaration of independence, this is what it would have looked like. >> former illinois governor rod blagojevich. >> hands shaky, can't seem to stand on my own two feet. hands are weak. >> recording elvis on your way here. a criminal verdict and you go with, "all shook up"? jailhouse rock didn't come up? >> 17 of the 20 corruption

chorgs. extortion, water fraud, bribery and criminal abuse of styling moose. >> >> try to speak a little less. i'm going to keep my remarks short. >> you weren't convicted of not being concise. your words on the obama senate seat. i got this thing and it's [ bleep ] golden and i'm just not [ bleep ] it up for [ bleep ] nothing. that's quite succinct. >> yesterday republicans walked out of the meetings. the story, eric cantor got mad at john boehner because he went golfing with obama, and talked about stuff that cantor wasn't in on. and that's it for this week's episode of "real housewives of d. d.c." >> democrats say we have to raise thes 14ds trillion debt ceiling before august 2nd. >> you can cut spending or raise taxes. take one of the table completely

you're not negotiating. it's like i will do anything for love, but i'm not doing that. >> you really wouldn't do anything for love. what i'm saying is, meat loaf's presence is haunting. >> and president obama held a press conference where he talked about how he is going to tackle the growing debt crisis. this is important. the money has been spent. >> you're in the future where we did not raise the debt ceiling as the republicans wanted. are there troubles? >> no. not really. the republicans got everything they wanted. america declared bankruptcy and in receivership, restructured our country as this fully privatized capitalist utopia.